Poll: More Americans Distrust Islam

From the Washington Post:

...a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll found that nearly half of Americans -- 46 percent -- have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Muslim extremists have perpetrated spectacular acts of terror in the United States, Spain, and Great Britain. Immigrant Muslim youth ran wild for weeks in the Paris suburbs, burning cars and attacking "infidels". More recently, Muslims all over the world have flown into a snit over cartoons, resulting in widespread rioting, arson, and murder. Palestinians have elected a terrorist organization as their government.

Arab-American critics like the courageous Dr. Wafa Sultan (who is actually not Muslim, but an atheist) are rare as hens' teeth. Americans are coming to believe that the "moderate Muslim" is a myth, and that there are only degrees of extremism. The evidence supports this view.

The Washington Post calls this prejudice. It is not prejudice. It is the survival instinct, informed by recent events.


Also posted at The Jawa Report and Vince Aut Morire.